“An ugly, lovely town, crawling, sprawling, by the side of a long and splendid curving shore. This sea-town was my world.”

Dylan Thomas loved Swansea and West Wales. He drew influence from his homeland and, despite his largely nomadic life, the poet remained resolutely Welsh.

However, Thomas’s spirit was too big to be confined to just one corner of the globe. His influence and the power of his words extend far beyond Swansea, the rolling hills of Carmarthenshire and the Pembrokeshire coast.

Dylan Thomas 100, the year-long cultural festival celebrating his life and work is in full swing and, while anchored firmly in Wales, the events are spread as globally as the writer’s appeal.

In Swansea the Dylan Thomas Centre provides the international focal point for fans and scholars. Throughout the festival it will present a programme of engaging, thought-provoking and uplifting events showcasing his work and the best in contemporary writing.

New work has been commissioned, the exhibition has been expanded and Thomas’s notebooks have returned to Swansea for the first time.

Beyond the Welsh city, events are being held in the USA, Canada, Argentina, India and Australia, with a range of collaborative performances alongside master classes and workshops.

In India, the Walking Cities project is an exchange between four writers from Wales, including Swansea-born writer Joe Dunthorne and former children’s poet laureate Eurig Salisbury, and four writers from India. The aim is to make a connection between Indian writers and Thomas's birthplace and the landscapes that impacted on his writing.

Even further afield, Cardiff’s Theatr Iolo will be taking its production of Adventures in the Skin Trade to the Sydney Opera House. An adaptation by Lucy Gough of Thomas’s surreal, coming-of-age unfinished novel, the production in Sydney will be a first for Welsh theatre.

The Melbourne Writers Festival in August will also include a focus on Thomas and contemporary Welsh writing.